Haunted
by Jaywings
Summary: Hidden deep in the woods is a Skool that was abandoned fifty years ago... and there's something not quite right about it. **ON HIATUS**
1. Prologue

A/N: Yes I started another story when I already have two that desperately need updating... but I figured I should at least start this with Halloween so close. I have no idea how long this is going to be, but I can already tell that it's going to extend long past Halloween. Ah well.

* * *

Zim decided very quickly that this had been a terrible idea and as soon as they got home he would punish GIR thoroughly. Oh, and he hated Earth.

_Okay_. Of the very few stupid things that he had done over his short but amazing life, this had to be the stupidest. No, wait. This wasn't his fault. _He_ wasn't the stupid one. And it wasn't entirely GIR's fault, either. It was these horrible human kids! _Irk_, of all the stupid situations he had gotten into because of _humans_…

"These earthlings will be the death of us," he muttered to the little green doggy-disguised GIR by his side.

"Hm!" GIR hugged himself and offered no other response. Perhaps he was _finally_ learning that dog-monster-pet-things weren't supposed to talk. Well, good.

Zim adjusted the uncomfortable fake fangs in his mouth for the hundredth time that evening and rubbed his thin arms under the long sleeves he was wearing for once. It was too cold out here. Far too cold.

"Come _on_, hurry up!" one of the human smeets called back to him. "Halloween won't last all night!" The entire group was several feet ahead. Zim quickened his step, attempting to skirt through the overhanging branches and overgrown brambles and weeds and whatever without getting scratched up. It was only seven o'clock, and yet everything around him was pitch dark. Of course he could see perfectly fine with the incredible implants in his eyes. The humans ahead of him could only see with their little portable light devices. How had he even ended up here? Wandering around in the woods at night with a bunch of _humans?_

"We're getting close," one of the kids, dressed up in green with bolts sticking out of his neck, said when Zim caught up with them. "Twenty bucks to whoever's brave enough to go touch the door!"

"What door?" Zim asked. As far as he knew there were no human settlements anywhere around here.

The kid snorted and didn't answer the question.

"Hey, how come you brought your dog?" another kid demanded, eyeing GIR with displeasure. "He might get us caught!"

"GIR is a loyal tool of destruction and would never give away our position!" Zim snapped. He scowled and pulled GIR a little closer by his leash. This was a _complete _waste of time.

"Look!" someone said. It was the annoying girl who sat behind him in class, Zita or whatever her name was (although it was difficult to tell with the mangled cat costume she was wearing). She jabbed her finger ahead and ran in that direction. The rest of the group galloped after her and Zim trailed behind them. Stupid, stupid.

They broke out of the cover of the trees and found themselves stopped short by an old rusted-over chain link fence. Zim's eyes widened in surprise. Hey, there actually _was_ something here! Enh, this was still pointless. He hoped they could get this over with and then he could go home without raising suspicion. He wasn't even sure what they were supposed to be doing.

"All right," a kid said, coming over to Zim. It was another human from the class at Skool. What was his name… The Letter M? Strange name for a human, but humans were weird. The Letter M was wearing fangs and a cape like Zim was. Not only were humans stupid and horrible, but they plagiarized as well…

The Letter M continued speaking. "We let you come with us to be nice. Now you've got to do your part. Keep a lookout, all right?"

"Sure, whatever," Zim said, only half-listening. Apparently these primates wanted him to keep watch. Not very exciting, but he'd be happy to be away from the humans and their disgusting stench.

None of the other kids spoke. They followed along the fence in hushed excitement until they came to a gate bolted closed with an old padlock. Torque Smacky, another of the humans in the group, simply reached out to touch it and the padlock pretty much crumbled in his hand. The corner of Zim's mouth twitched in a smirk. Heh, shoddy human locking devices. Hehehe.

Zita swung the gate open and brushed off the flakes of rust that came off on her hand. "C'mon," she whispered.

"Stay here, Zim," The Letter M said. Zim just frowned.

The rest of the group filed through the gate and vanished into the night. Zim leaned against the fence and crossed his arms. The voices of the human children faded as they got farther away.

And then silence. Silence for a good long while.

Not even the sound of cricket chirps rang out. And there was no wind. Nothing rustled. There was only silence, and cold.

Zim shifted his position (his left leg was starting to go numb) and scratched at his wig. The sudden sound of crunching leaves caused him to nearly leap out of his skin and he gritted his teeth, flicking his gaze down to see what was there. He relaxed—it was only GIR. Hmm. GIR was being uncharacteristically quiet.

"GIR," Zim said, as much to break the silence as anything else. He sank down until he was sitting on the forest floor. "Where are we?"

GIR looked around and his eyes flickered in confusion. "Fairyland?"

"_GIR_."

The little robot's eyes flashed red through his amazing dog disguise and his voice deepened. "Sir! We are at the edge of the woods just outside the boundaries of the town. Ahead of us is a Skool abandoned fifty years ago. We have been enlisted by some of your classmates to come on a mission to explore the Skool tonight. Yay. And you would remember that, if you weren't an—"

"GIR!"

"I'm hungry." GIR's voice switched back to normal. He dropped to the ground next to Zim, scooped up two pawfuls of leaves, and stuffed them into his mouth. Zim barely noticed.

It was quiet again. Unease settled in his squeedily-spooch and a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature crept up his spine. Something about this place didn't feel right. The silence, the smell… because there was a strange smell that he just couldn't place… Zim wondered if he should just get up and go back to his base. Of course, if he did that he'd hear no end of it in class tomorr—

A sharp, piercing scream broke out in the distance. Zim's head whipped up and his mind raced. Fear? Destruction? Something was causing pain to a human and he wasn't there to see it? He got to his feet. What had happened?

Running footsteps thundered toward him, crashing through the leaves and branches littering the ground.

"Get outta here! Run! RUN!" the Zita girl shrieked as the group of humans came closer. They erupted through the gap in the fence, shoving Zim out of the way and gathering in a wild-eyed bunch in the shelter of the forest beyond. Zim sucked in a breath through his teeth—a protruding piece of metal on the fence had ripped his uniform and cut into his arm. He pulled away and didn't bother with the strip of his sleeve that tore off and stuck on the fence.

"Hey! What's going on?" he demanded, clutching his arm. Translucent pink blood stained the edges of his sleeve.

"Eyes," a girl in the group said. She gulped hard and panted, bent forward with her arms wrapped around her middle. "I saw… eyes… in the window."

"There was someone _in there_," Torque said. He looked terrified. Huh. "In the Skool. _Someone_ or _something_ was in the Skool and it was watching us."

Zim furrowed his brow and stared at him in irritation. Eyes in the window? That was it? The way the humans had been carrying on, he thought that one of them must have been murdered. What was so frightening about _eyes?_

The bushes next to the group shook and rustled as if something large was dragging itself through them. The humans screeched with pure terror and tripped over themselves trying to get away. The chill in Zim's spine overtook his chest and he backed away from the bushes, crashing into the chain link fence once more. His throat felt constricted and he couldn't breathe. Forgotten memories of last year filled his mind, of Halloweenies and candy-starved zombie children… There were eyes in the bush. _Big _eyes. Peering out at him. Zim froze, his gaze trained on the bush, unable to think… unable to move…

The eyes blinked.

Zim left the fence and was running before he registered that he had even moved. The dragging sound followed him through the autumn leaves that crunched underfoot and seemed to be getting closer. The human kids were nowhere in sight. Was it safe to use his PAK legs? How could he possibly get away from this thing? What _was_ it?!

Something warm wrapped around his ankle and held fast. Zim's feet flew out from under him and he crashed to the ground. There was an audible _snap_ in his wrist and he gave a gasping choke as pain flared up his arm.

"Aaaaahhh," he moaned, struggling to pull away from whatever had grabbed his ankle. It released him. Immediately he leaped to his feet and pelted away. No longer concerned with secrecy, he sprung his spider legs from his PAK and let them carry him on their tips. He had no idea whether the thing was still following him. All he could hear was the pounding in his head, and all he cared about was getting away. The woods became a red-tinged blur as he scrambled through them.

At last his mad dash came to an end when he burst from the forest in a shower of leaves. He emerged from the trees at the edge of an embankment and tumbled down the slope, landing with a thump in the ditch at the bottom.

The world stilled and he lay there for a moment, sprawled on the ground with his PAK legs splayed around him. Realizing he wasn't breathing, he gasped in air and shuddered. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Inhale. Exhale.

Cricket chirps registered in his mind. The crickets were chirping again. The horrible stillness and feeling of dread that had lingered around the old Skool were gone. Zim sat up on his knees and winced at the sharp pain in his wrist. Ugh, he'd broken the wrist of the same arm that had been cut on the fecne. He retracted his PAK legs and glanced back and forth. There didn't seem to be anyone around. Where had GIR gone? He'd been right beside Zim, hadn't he?

"GIR?" Zim croaked. There was no response. Well, great. Now he had to go find the stupid robot. He climbed to his feet, steadied himself, and then flexed the fingers of his injured wrist. Small electrical shocks kept running through his arm. His PAK was working quickly to get it back to normal.

So what now? He couldn't go back and look for GIR. He'd just end up walking in endless circles. And the thing that had chased him might still be in there. Not that Zim couldn't handle that… that whatever it was… but he didn't have any weapons or anything with him at the moment. He'd have to just go back to his base, get the Voot, and start an aerial search for GIR. Idiot robot. Didn't he realize how busy Zim was? No, he just went and got himself lost. Zim scowled.

Mind made up, he clambered out of the ditch and started into a jog in a direction that he hoped would take him to his base. It was going to be a long trip back. Details of what had happened in the forest seemed unimportant now, and they quickly slipped his mind.


	2. Chapter 1

"TRICK OR TREAT!"

A little witch, a ghost, and a skeleton were all grinning, holding out pillowcases and plastic bags expectantly. Their smiles faded when they saw who had answered the door.

"Happy Halloween," Dib said, pulling out three candied Super Toast mega-bars from the silver bowl he carried and dropping one in every bag. He was about to close the door and retreat back into the house when the witch pushed her way forward.

"Where's Professor Membrane?" she demanded. "Why isn't _he_ giving us candy instead of _you_, freak?"

Being called 'freak' by a six-year-old brought about no response from Dib. "He's busy," he said. "All of those candies are printed with his signature, though."

The three children squealed and immediately dove for their bags to fish out the autographed candy, wrestling the candy bags out of each other's hands and starting up a shouting match. Dib hurriedly swung the door closed, clutching the silver bowl full of candy bars tightly to his chest. With a sigh he placed the bowl on the ground and headed to the living room where he jumped back on the couch, picked up his lukewarm cup of Chinese food once more, and resumed the horror movie playing on TV.

"Hey," Gaz's voice said. Dib looked up and nearly jumped out of his skin—not because of the costume his sister was wearing, but because she was, well, _wearing_ a costume. She was standing by the couch wearing an absurd outfit with some sort of brown cloak and a hat. She had some sort of glowing sword in her hand. It looked kind of like she was trying to imitate the vampire piggy hunter on that video game she liked to play.

"_Gaz?_" Dib said, shocked. "Why are you dressed up?"

Gaz turned and started walking away from him. "I'm not dressed up. I'm cosplaying."

Dib's mind went completely blank at this. "…Cosplaying?"

"Yeah."

Gaz said nothing more on the subject. She took a Super Toast bar from the bowl, unwrapped it, and bit off a chunk. "Where's _your_ costume?"

"I don't… have one." Dib hadn't planned on dressing up this year. Or any year after this one, for that matter. And Gaz was the _last_ person he would have expected to want to wear a costume and go trick-or-treating. Well, except maybe Zim.

Gaz peered at him with one eye. "Dad wants me to go out, remember? And he won't let me go without _you_."

Well, that was true. Dib sighed. "Gaz, can't you just—"

Gaz didn't answer. Her steely glare was answer enough.

Dib turned off the movie and headed upstairs.

When he reached his room he paused, taking in everything that lay on the ground, under his desk, on his desk, under his bed… man, he really needed to do some organizing in here. And what could he possibly dress up as? He didn't have anything.

He pressed the handprint scanner on his wall and opened his closet, rooting through it for anything that could pass as a costume. His hand brushed up against his stealth suit and he pulled it out. Hey! That could work! He could use it to dress up as… a Ninja, or something. Yeah. Quickly he slipped into it and dashed back downstairs.

"Finally," Gaz said. She started for the door.

"Hang on." Dib took a piece of paper and a pen from his pocket and scrawled 'Take one piece each, compliments of Professor Membrane.' He folded the paper over the rim of the candy bowl and took it with him when they stepped outside, placing it on the ground for trick-or-treaters. "All right, let's go."

* * *

Halloween had quickly become Dib's least favorite holiday. How could he forget the horrors of last year? He had very literally been nearly consumed by his own mind. He had been imprisoned in the Crazy House for Boys in a strait jacket. If he thought about it, he could almost feel the straps of that horrible thing twining around him again. Gaz didn't know about that, of course… because Dib had never told her… or anyone, actually. Only Zim knew about it. It just wasn't the kind of thing you went around telling everyone about.

Dib and Gaz stomped up the wooden stairs onto the porch of someone's house. Gaz reached up and rang the doorbell. Footsteps sounded inside and a woman opened the door, squinting down at the two of them.

After a second of no one speaking Dib held out his bag. "Trick or treat," he said weakly. Gaz didn't say anything.

The woman sniffed in disapproval, muttered something about delinquent kids, and dropped a couple small pieces of candy in their bags. She slammed the door closed again. Gaz drifted back down the steps and Dib followed.

He glanced from side to side, unable to shake the uneasy feeling that had been churning in his stomach all day. There were a bunch of people running around with half-filled bags of candy and clothed in fake-looking costumes of creatures they didn't believe existed. He swallowed. Everything would be fine, _this_ time… it wasn't like he'd tampered with anything interdimensional this year, and the portal in his mind had been closed off again! Right? Right.

"Scared of kids in costume?" Gaz said. Even though she was walking in front of him and hadn't looked back, she must have somehow been aware of his dread.

"_Zim's_ scared of kids in costume, not me," Dib replied. He rubbed at his arms to warm himself. It was _freezing_ out.

A trio of kids meandered over to them. "Hiya, Dib! Cool costume!" one said. It was Keef. Unlike his companions, Melvin (dressed as an astronaut) and Gretchen (dressed as Abraham Lincoln), he wasn't wearing a costume.

"Oh. Hi," Dib said. He hurried away, a bit unnerved.

Gaz headed up the walk of a house with orange and purple lights flickering against the sides. Dib started to follow but something caught his eye. Some_one_, to be more exact. A green-skinned someone.

Dib changed direction and ran to intercept the alien.

Zim was wandering in more-or-less the direction of his base, though his stride was sluggish rather than his usual militaristic march. A torn cape trailed behind him; he looked so disheveled that he might have spent the afternoon exploring the crawlspace under someone's house. His little robot minion was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey!" Dib dashed in front of Zim and skidded to a halt. "What are you doing?"

"What's it to you?" Zim said, eyes narrowed. His words were a bit garbled by the fangs stuck in his mouth.

Dib gawked at him. "You're… dressed up? As a… vampire?"

"Of course," Zim said. "Ingenious disguise, yes, I know." He pushed Dib aside and continued on his way.

"What have you been up to?" Dib demanded, swinging in front of Zim again. He was slightly taller than the alien menace nowadays, a fact that he took pride in.

"I am not up to anything!" Zim said irritably.

Dib planted his hands on his hips. "Then why does your hair have sticks in it?

Zim glanced up and plucked a twig from his toupee, examining it before tossing it to the side with a flick of his hand. "I've been… gardening."

"Gardening." Dib crossed his arms.

"Yes. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the term."

Gaz walked over to them. "Come _on_, Dib, we have to go to more houses."

Dib squinted one eye at Zim. "You look like you've been attacked by a weed whacker. You _have _to admit that's suspicious."

Zim stood up straighter. "As a matter of fact, _Dib_, I was out in the woods. With my _friends_." He smirked.

"Friends? _What_ friends?"

"Oh, eh. Zita. And Torque Smackey, and… others."

That didn't make any sense. Since when did people like Zita and Torque start hanging out in the woods with Zim? Since when did _anyone_ hang out in the woods with Zim? And where was the robot? It was rare to see Zim outside without it, unless he was walking to or from Skool.

Dib suddenly realized that he was alone on the street. Zim had moved away and Gaz had disappeared, probably going to the next house. He hesitated. Finish trick-or-treating, or go find out what potentially evil and Earth-threatening thing Zim had been doing?

"Zim, wait!" Dib called, chasing after the alien again. This time he grabbed Zim's arm.

"_What?_" Zim snapped, facing him. Dib noticed that he arm he had grabbed had a long cut on it that was healing over.

Dib exhaled. "Look, I'm just on edge tonight, okay? You remember what happened last year."

"Do not."

"What? We were sucked _into my mind!_ We barely escaped! How could you not remember?!"

"Oh, yes, yes, of course I remember that." Zim waved the thought away. "Now unhand me!"

"I just want to make sure that that never happens again! And if you've been doing something _evil_, it'll end up involving me because I'm going to have to go and stop you like I always do, and then it'll be a catastrophe for both of us and who knows, we might end up somewhere _worse_ than my mind!"

"What could _possibly_ be worse than your mind?" Zim challenged.

"I don't know. _Your_ mind. I just don't know." Dib rubbed his head. "Just tell me what you were doing, okay? Out in the woods with Torque and Zita."

"There were others!" Zim retorted. "The Letter M and other filthy people, don't know their names because they're stupid. And I didn't do _any_thing, _Dib_. They invited me to come along."

Now that _really_ didn't fit. "Our classmates invited _you_ somewhere? Geez, Zim, if you think I'm buying that—"

"Of course they wanted me on their expedition!" Zim shouted. "I was going to do the _horrible_ tricking-for-treating and they bumped into me and asked me to come along with them because my amazingness would surely aid them in their quest. I was the lookout." Zim's chest inflated with pride.

The corner of Dib's mouth twitched. "Sounds like they were just using you."

"Yes, of course, they never could have found the Skool without me," Zim said, his head nodding.

Dib froze, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. "…Skool?"

"Yes."

"In the middle of the woods?"

"_Yes._"

"And they were… looking for it…" Dib backed away from Zim, barely registering that he had already released the alien's arm some time ago. His mind drifted into the research that he had gone through two or maybe even three years ago. An old Skool in the woods, abandoned about fifty years ago, there had been a fire… or a gas leak or something, the reports had never been clear… there had been a death, maybe more… "And you guys _found_ it?" He turned his attention once more to Zim.

"Of course we did, Dib-filth!" Zim's voice indicated that he had lost all patience (what little he had, anyway) and he looked livid. "Now leave me in peace! I'm going HOME!"

"Wait," Once again, Dib blocked Zim from moving forward. "You have to show me."

"Eh?" Zim leaned away from him. If Dib didn't know better, he could've sworn a glimmer of fear flickered in the alien's eyes. "I'm not going back there with _you_. I need to get the Voot and find GIR!"

"We'll help you find him," Dib said immediately.

Zim snarled, " I can find him by _myself_."

"I have advanced tracking equipment."

"Not as advanced as mine!"

"Are you two _done_ yet?" Gaz had appeared next to Zim. Her candy bag was nearly overflowing. Dib stared at her for a moment, wondering how she could have possibly filled up her bag so quickly, but then decided to drop that thought.

"Zim's going to show us an old haunted Skool from a legend I read about!" he said.

"I'm not showing you anything!" Zim's gaze flitted between Dib and Gaz, and his two-fingered hands clasped together over his chest.

"Haunted Skool?" Gaz said. Was it Dib's imagination, or did her voice hold a note of interest? Imaginary or not, Dib latched onto it.

"Yeah! There were a couple of deaths there fifty years ago and it's supposed to be haunted. No one's ever done a formal investigation there and there haven't been many consistent eyewitness reports. We could be the first! We could be famous!"

"Death and haunting sounds cool," Gaz said. Her expression hadn't changed. Dib's eyes stretched and he figured his surprise showed plainly on his face. Well, Halloween was supposed to be a night of shocks and surprises, and here was Gaz dressed up, trick-or-treating, and wanting to go on a ghosthunt. Odd.

Zim winced and rubbed at his neck, taking a rasping breath. "_Agh_—okay, okay, I'll show you the Skool. It's this way." He turned on his heel and started marching in the direction he had come.

Dib and Gaz glanced at each other, confused. It wasn't like Zim to change his mind so quickly. Gaz just shrugged, and together they picked up their pace and hurried after him.

Despite his excitement for the prospect of exploring the haunted Skool, Dib's uneasiness had grown. He wondered what other surprises may await him tonight.


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Much thanks to Alohilani for proofreading this chapter! :D

* * *

Zim may have offered to show them the way to the Skool Dib had mentioned, but in no way did he seem happy about it. He kept twitching and messing with that dumb triangular collar thing on his pink uniform. He made the most noise out of the three of them as they headed through the forest. Gaz moved silently, of course, she always moved silently. She grudgingly admitted that even Dib stepped over the ground with hardly any sound. He must have practiced doing that in order to sneak up on his stupid paranormal what-nots and catch them off guard. Zim, however, stomped through the fallen leaves and made as much noise as he wanted.

Gaz wished that she had been able to stow her candy bag somewhere. She had to hold onto both that and the sword that was part of her costume; the candy bag was heavy and cumbersome to drag through the snagging branches of the bushes and trees. She couldn't believe she had actually been _interested_ in this expedition for a minute. Maybe she'd been forced to watch too many Mysterious Mysteries episodes with Dib. Did he _have_ to turn on that show every time she was in the living room? Speaking of Dib, he was as convenient a candy bag-stowing place as any. She thrust her bag at him and he took it without complaint. He didn't touch any of the candies. Of course he didn't. He would have figured that Gaz had counted them. Which she had.

Oh, Dib was talking. She hadn't noticed at first.

"It's an old legend," he was saying. "The main Skool that people would go to used to be out here somewhere. I even heard something about Ms. Bitters teaching there before it closed down but I dunno if that's true or not. Anyway, there was some kind of horrible accident and at least one student died. I read up on a lot about the legend because the girl that died was kind of interested in the paranormal, I think… More than one report said she used to play with Voodoo dolls when she was alive."

"What kind of accident happened?" Gaz interrupted. Not that she was interested in the legend, but death and horrible accidents tended to catch her attention.

"I don't know. But it was enough to get them to close the Skool. It was abandoned and they built the new one. You know, the one that we go to. People don't usually go looking for the old Skool, so there aren't very many reports about it. There's the usual, though, you know, people going in and never coming out, people hearing strange noises, seeing things like—"

"Eyes," Zim said.

Dib glanced up in surprise like he had forgotten the alien was there. "…Yeah, there's been reports of people saying they saw eyes in the windows. Hey, Zim, what exactly happened when you went up to the Skool with those kids? I forgot to ask you!"

"Eyes," Zim said again. "Dragging sound. Something grabbed my ankle." He rubbed at his wrist as he spoke, making Gaz wonder for a brief moment whether Zim knew the difference between an ankle and a wrist.

Dib seemed to notice the gesture too.

Zim didn't elaborate on what he had witnessed earlier at the Skool, and Dib for some reason didn't press him about it. Maybe he had noticed that Zim looked pretty shaken up. Engh, that would be a first. Usually Dib didn't notice _anything_.

It was dark out here. Darker than dark, pitch, pitch dark, and the only light they had, besides Gaz's glowing sword, was the tiny penlight Dib had unclipped from the belt of that stupid-looking Ninja suit he was wearing. It didn't do much to help them see. And Zim wasn't doing much about the light situation. He just kept marching forward, never turning back to see if they were keeping up. He could probably see in the dark. Well, good for him. At least he was being silent for once, which suited Gaz just fine. Any moment she could go without Zim's screaming or Dib's yakking about supernatural junk was a good moment.

The night stilled around them as they grew closer to their destination—the crickets stopped chirping, the wind slowed and then eventually ceased, leaving the air frigid and brittle, as if it might break if they moved too quickly through it. Even Zim's incessant fidgeting and his loud footsteps quieted. He and Dib didn't seem to take note of any of that. Or if they did, they weren't mentioning it. Dib only took on a look of unease when the sole sound out here was the rustle of the leaves as they stepped through them. The atmosphere just begged for something to leap out and attack them. As far as Gaz could remember, the most threatening animals in these woods were foxes, and pathetic _Zim_ was probably the most dangerous thing out here, but she kept her eyes peeled just in case.

Zim stopped. Dib, caught off guard, nearly crashed into him before halting as well. Gaz stayed a little behind both of them.

"We're here," Zim said. His voice was a croak.

In front of them stood a tall, rusted chain link fence with a gaping maw in the middle. A gate sagged open on one side of the fence. The trio stood around silently for a moment.

"Woooow," Dib breathed. He actually sounded intrigued. It was _just_ an old chain link fence. No signs of ghosts, as far as Gaz could tell, nothing that even _Dib_ could interpret as a sign.

"Okay, that's enough for tonight," Zim said. He turned right around and started marching back in the direction they had come.

"Hey!" Dib said. "Where are you going? We have to go inside!"

Zim looked mortified. "_I'm_ not going in there! Are you infected with _brain parasites?_"

"What, are you scared? Didn't you go in there earlier?"

"No! I was the LOOKOUT!" Zim spat. "And I am not _scared_. I fear _nothing_. And I also have to find GIR."

"You look scared to me," Gaz put in with a shrug. She felt perfectly fine. Stories didn't scare her. Creepy things that went bump in the night didn't scare her. She might end up seeing a dozen ghosts tonight and she'd never be fazed—they could all go jump off a cliff.

"Whatever, Zim," Dib said. He pushed the gate open further and stepped through. He realized he was still holding the candy bag and, with a glance at Gaz, set it down just inside the fence. He continued talking to the alien. "You've led us here and you're not giving me any other useful information, so you might as well go back, at night, by yourself. I want to do an investigation of this place. C'mon, Gaz!"

Gaz stepped through after him. Pff, Dib. He thought she was his sidekick or whatever. Ugh. She didn't protest it tonight—she had become pretty apathetic to this whole thing, actually, and figured that the quicker they did this the sooner Dib would lose enthusiasm about the Skool and decide to go back home where pizza, candy, and video games awaited.

Zim, his back turned to them, tensed and hunched his shoulders. His head twitched, and he jittered a bit, and then he turned back around and he came back toward them, and for a fraction of a second his eyes looked glazed. Gaz blinked and Zim's eyes were focused once more, narrowed in irritation. He was so easy to read. Dib was, too. Their faces betrayed everything they were thinking. Most people's did, actually. The only person whose face proved difficult for Gaz to read was Professor Membrane, for obvious reasons. But even he wasn't hard to figure out. His mind was usually geared to only one thing. Just like Dib's. The two of them were so alike, they just didn't realize it. They remained cold and distant with each other instead. Irony.

No trees grew on the inside of the fence. There may have been grass here at some point, but now there was nothing but bare ground. It was even quieter now than it had been before. Gaz's eyes flickered over the landscape and something riveted her gaze. An old, spindly swingset stood by itself off to the side. At least, it had been a swingset at one time. Two pairs of chains hung down from a rotten wooden beam suspended over the ground, but the actual seats of the swings were missing. Now it kind of looked like some sort of weird torture device. Now that was a bit eerie, yeah.

The Skool building itself loomed in front of them. It had the feel of a large crouching animal, a sleeping animal, one that had been dormant for a long, long time and was due to reawaken soon.

"There's a door!" Dib said in a whisper, which was probably unintentional. He broke out in a jog and stopped by the door in the wall. Gaz and Zim hurried to catch up with him and he pushed at the door; it swung open with barely a touch. Almost as if it had been waiting for them, Gaz thought drily. That was something Dib would take and run with.

"Come on," Dib said. He didn't open the door all the way but slipped in through the crack. Zim hesitated in front of the opening. Gaz held back until he finally sidled, reluctantly, through the doorway, and then she followed. The inside of the Skool was damp and dark. The already freezing temperature noticeably dropped several degrees as soon as she stepped inside, the cold and dankness settling on Gaz's skin like a wet towel. The door had opened onto a dark hallway, deserted except for the lockers lining each wall like silent soldiers standing at attention. Dib pulled some kind of device out of a pocket in his suit, crouched, and waved it slowly back and forth.

Zim backed up against one of the lockers and stood up strait. He rubbed his wrist and his disguised eyes darted about. Neither Gaz nor Dib took any notice of the little whiner.

"Gaz, come look at these readings!" Dib said. "Foolproof proof! Evidence!" He waved Gaz over but she didn't move. "The readings are low, which means that the ghost isn't very strong, but there _is_ a ghost here. Almost absolutely. At the most it's just a harmless little spirit that's gotten lost."

Zim sagged slightly and his face lost its panicked edge. "Mmn good, so now we can—"

The door they had come through swung closed with a clang.

The sound echoed far along the unused hallway, and silence rang in the air long after the echo had faded away.

"…Gaz, did you do that?" Dib asked.

"No."

Zim had cringed horribly when the door closed. Now he regained his composure, marched over to it, and yanked on it. It didn't open. "Hey!" He yanked again. "HEY!"

"It's locked," Gaz stated.

"Huh?" Dib stood and stowed the scanning device in his pocket. He ran to the door and tried it for himself but it didn't so much as creak. He sucked in a breath. "Okay—okay. They must have locked it when they abandoned the Skool but then didn't close it all the way. And then one of you must have bumped it closed… there's no way a ghost that gives off such low readings would be able to move something as heavy as a door."

"So how do we get out of here?" Gaz crossed her arms.

"Break the door down," Zim muttered to himself. He backed up a few steps and Dib had just enough time to get the heck out of the way before Zim blasted at the door with the robotic spider legs that emerged from his PAK. The shots ricocheted off the door and scorched the ceiling instead.

"Careful!" Dib hissed.

Zim blanched, his metal legs clicking back away. "That, eh, wasn't supposed to happen,"

Dib dropped his voice level. "Come on, it's an old Skool. There'll be other ways out. Just don't disturb anything."

He held out the little penlight again and crept along the cracked tiled floor. Gaz followed. Zim tried the door one more time, then stomped after them.

Gaz had never been in a Skool at night before. She _did_ prefer it to the hustle and bustle of the regular Skool day with her class full of snotty kids that flinched away every time she said a word… except here she was wandering around with the two most annoying people on Earth. And this building had a bad smell. It was like a mixture of mold with undertones of decay. Well… with a fifty-year-old abandoned building, she supposed she was lucky that was all it smelled like.

Every classroom they passed looked the same. A bare teacher's desk at the front, a blackboard, and about thirty desks. Dib shone his flashlight into a few of the rooms, probably out of curiosity, and Gaz caught glimpses of yellowed, worn paper sitting on top of some of the desks. Homework that had been left behind when everyone got out and abandoned the building, perhaps.

They moved at an extremely slow pace. Dib had taken out his scanning device again and was taking note of the readings it displayed. Occasionally he would say something like, "The energy's weaker over here," or he would straighten up and go, "Whoa! I think the ghost might be here with us right now! Hello? Can you make yourself known? Knock once if you can hear me!"

There was never a knock. Dib would just pause for a minute, then shake his head, and they would continue on.

"You and your filthy ghosts," Zim sneered. Gaz raised an eyebrow. Zim sure was acting cocky for someone who had been terrified at the thought of coming in here. He tugged at his collar again and pawed at his neck.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Dib demanded, lowering his flashlight.

Zim dropped his hands. "I'unno."

Dib shined his flashlight on Zim's neck and peered at it. "Are you… there's not another equinox tonight, is there?"

"No!" Zim said in an indignant whine. "If there was, would I have left the sanctuary of my _base?_"

"Yes," Dib replied. But he must have been satisfied enough with Zim's answer because he pointed the flashlight ahead again and turned away. "I'll be watching you, Zim. And I think I've got a camera in my suit somewhere."

What were they _talking_ about? Alien stuff?

Gaz elected to ignore both of them.

Dib wasn't finished talking. "Hey, Zim, why'd you come here with those kids from class, anyway? I thought you were scared of kids in costumes. Something about 'candy-starved zombies searching for blood-candies.'" He glanced over at Zim and smirked. Gaz, walking behind him, rolled her eyes.

"Foolishness!" Zim said. "My misguided worries from last year were just a minor slipup. It happens occasionally. Children walking around in gaudy costumes are even more pathetic than children walking around in not… costumes."

"Your slipups happen _occasionally?_ Zim, every time I see you, you're doing something wrong."

"Of course! I'm evil!"

Dib scowled. "Not _that_ kind of wrong, you moron, the messing-up kind of wrong."

Zim made some angry retort but Gaz had stopped paying attention. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and her skin prickled. She turned her head, pretending she was looking at Zim, and searched the hallway behind her out of the corner of her eye. As far as she could tell, it was empty, but it was too dark to really tell. Something might be hiding in the shadows.

She clenched her fists and kept walking. When her skin prickled again she stopped, and said calmly, "We're not alone."

Dib whirled around. "Is it the ghost? Who's there?"

"There's no _ghost_," Zim said. He shoved his hands in his uniform pockets and leaned his back against the wall of lockers, pressing one foot up against them. He looked so ridiculous that Gaz almost smiled. Almost.

Dib sighed. "Gaz, were you just messing with me?"

Gaz glared.

Dib shook his head and started down the hallway again. The presence Gaz had felt behind them seemed to be gone now. She wondered if she should bring it up again. Nah, let Dib figure it out on his own.

Just as she had this thought, a locker slammed somewhere in the distance.

"GHOST!" Dib shouted.

"HALLOWEENIES!" Zim screamed at the same time. Dib tore down a side hallway in the direction of the sound. Zim growled, a noise that turned into a choke. He took a staggering step forward, said something in what Gaz could only assume was either Irken or gibberish, and ran after Dib. Gaz was getting tired of this. But she headed after them.

Dib vanished in the darkness except for the little circle of light from his flashlight. When Gaz reached him he had skidded to a halt and was turning every which way. They had come to a four-way intersection of hallways; it was impossible to tell from which one the sound had come from.

"Did you hear that?" he asked excitedly when Gaz came up. "There's no one else here! This place really is haunted!"

"It might've been Zim's stupid robot," Gaz pointed out.

Zim perked up. "GIR? Where?"

"I suppose it could've been the wind," Dib said, drooping a bit.

Zim suddenly stood ramrod straight, eyes wide and vacant. His arms stiffened at his sides, one of his fingers twitching. He relaxed as suddenly as he had spasmed, and blinked twice.

"But how could a locker have stayed open for fifty years and then get blown closed _tonight?_" Dib continued. "I really think that—"

Zim leapt.

Dib was toppled over and he hit the ground on his arm. Hard, it looked like. "Wha—"

A hissing sound escaped between Zim's teeth and his eyes were slits. His fingers were curved into claws and he lashed at Dib's face. Dib turned his head just in time. Zim's claws caught the hood of Dib's black suit. Zim yelped in pain and Gaz realized that he'd swiped at Dib with his injured hand.

Dib twisted, managing to wedge his foot below Zim's ribcage, and kicked him off. Zim popped up on his metal legs before he hit the floor and smashed the broad side of one of them into Dib's side. Dib slid across the floor and smacked into the lockers against the wall.

"WHAT! ARE! YOU! DOING!" Dib gasped, scrambling back to his feet. Zim lunged forward on his spider legs, whipped his feet up, and slammed the heel of one at Dib's face. Dib dropped to the floor and somersaulted to the side, and Zim's foot made contact with the metal lockers instead. He immediately pulled up one of his spider legs and stabbed down at Dib, who jerked away. "Quit it, Zim! This is important!"

"_Rrraaacccchhhsssshhh,_" Zim hissed, spraying flecks of spittle everywhere. He crisscrossed his spider legs underneath him, crouched, and sprung forward, corkscrewing through the air and plowing into Dib once more. He sank his fake but still sharp and pointy-looking vampire fangs into Dib's arm, making twin indentations in Dib's sleeve.

Dib cried out, balled up his fist, and slammed it into the side of Zim's head. Zim released him. Dib hurried away and messed with some sort of dial at the hem of his suit; Zim shook his head and lunged out, grabbing Dib's ankle and sending him crashing to the ground. Dib delivered a swift kick to Zim's broken wrist. Zim let go, and Dib vanished.

Zim crouched on the tips of his spider legs like a brooding tarantula and flicked his eyes about the hall. His vampire fangs had fallen out and his wig was askew. Underneath his wig, one of his uncovered antennae twitched. Instantly he sprang forward and crashed into what appeared to be thin air. Dib flickered back into view for a moment, looking panicked, then disappeared again. But not before Zim closed the fingers of both hands tightly around his throat. And he didn't let go.

Gaz grabbed Zim's collar and yanked him off as hard as she could. Zim, taken completely by surprise, snapped his spider legs back into his PAK and struggled to get away. Gaz smacked him in the head with her glowing sword for good measure.

"Knock. It. _Off_," she growled.

"What's the matter, Firefly, worried about me hurting the Dib-beast?" Zim hissed between his clenched teeth. It was his own voice… but he didn't sound exactly like himself.

Gaz raised an eyebrow. _Firefly?_

"No, you're just a _lunatic_," she said, ignoring the strange name Zim had called her. "At least if Dib attacks _you_ he's usually got some reason behind it."

Dib reappeared next to Gaz and stared down at Zim. "You could've killed me!" He sounded shocked.

Zim's eyes sharpened. "Geddoff," he said, shaking her hand off his arm. His voice seemed pretty normal this time.

"Wait, Gaz, I think he might've been possessed!" Dib said, pulling her away from Zim. He made a peace sign at the alien. "Zim! How many fingers am I holding up? …No, wait, that's not the right test for that. Um…"

Zim got to his feet and brushed dust off the sleeves of his uniform. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're acting weirder than _usual_ tonight," Gaz said. That was a bit of an understatement, considering he had suddenly decided to try to strangle Dib for no apparent reason, but she pushed that thought aside.

Dib glared at Zim. He took Gaz's arm and pulled her away. "Keep an eye on him," he said. "He might attack us again. Something about this place must've gotten to him."

Gaz made no response. Of course she'd keep an eye on Zim. She'd already been keeping an eye on him. She watched everything, she was aware of everything. Maybe that came as a consequence of living with two boys that were both stuck in their own fantasy worlds and never noticed anything around them, she didn't know. She pulled her arm out of Dib's grasp.

"Come on," Dib said, seeming to have forgotten about his near-death experience. "We have to try to find the exit. I think we've experienced enough tonight to say this place is definitely haunted! I need to get better equipment so I can do a _real_ investigation!"

He pointed the flashlight down another hall so they could keep going. And that's when the little light blinked out.


End file.
